You might be resistant to the influence of others today, and this could make you feel argumentative when defending your opinions. Even though having a firm opinion can be positive, holding onto your ideas to the point where you exclude othersí thoughts can be limiting. Reminding yourself that by listening to new ideas you can become more open could help you become receptive to differing points of view. Perhaps you can expose yourself to new ideas in the news or in your community today that you know may make you feel indignant. As you learn more about these other perspectives, you might put yourself in the other personís shoes and ask yourself if you would act any differently. While this might not change your ideas, it can give you a sense of different viewpoints and how they manifest themselves in our world.

Seeing the world through nonjudgmental eyes lets us open ourselves up to a variety of perspectives. It can be easy for many of us to hold our ideas up as the truth and argue vehemently for them. Putting ourselves in another personís place, however, makes us more sensitive to their interests. Even if we donít agree, we might be more aware that their ideas can sometimes come from a place of fear and realize how much the ideas we all hold onto are bound by our own limitations and insecurities. By opening yourself up to differing ideas today, you may find yourself more conscientious of the diversity of opinions that are the very nature of humanity.